Odds and ends

• The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops endorses a bill to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba without restriction: “Improving the lives of the Cuban people and encouraging democracy and human rights in Cuba will best be advanced through more, rather than less, contact between the Cuban and American people.” The letter to the bill’s sponsors from Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, chairman of the Conference’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, says the restrictions on Cuban American family visits are “particularly objectionable.” The text is here.

• Prensa Latina: The Cuban team for this year’s World Baseball Classic is in training now, ready to rip.

• During the UN Human Rights Council’s proceeding last week, seven countries called for Cuba to release political prisoners. Cuba’s response: No. To do so, the Cuban government says, would help advance “a policy designed by a foreign superpower with the objective of destroying the legitimate constitutional order freely chosen by its people.” I can understand how one would make that argument about the Bush policy. But does it apply to Obama, three weeks in office? (Reuters coverage here.)

• Fidel Castro’s latest reflection concerns White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. I didn’t know what to make of it so I didn’t write about it. Others didn’t know what to make of it either, but wrote about it anyway, and linked to it. See here and here.